He lifted his head but didn’t turn to face me. “What did you have in mind?”
“What if I buy the car from you instead?” I asked as I propped my elbows back on the counter beside him, pushing my chest out a little more than what was necessary to get his attention. Sometimes you had to play dirty. “That is, if I like the ride,” I added, making sure he knew he wasn’t calling all the shots around here.
His eyes were on me like a wolf that had just spotted their prey, and I knew I had him.
“Oh, you’ll like it,” he said, his gaze moving down below my neckline. “In fact, I think you’ll love it.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said as I wet my lips. “I’m pretty picky, you know. A little hard to satisfy, even.”
“Is that right?” He grabbed me by the waist and slid me over so that I was standing in front of him. Without missing a beat, his gaze travelled down the length of my body as he unabashedly drank me in. “I promise you’ll want to ride it again and again, angel,” he said and then hooked his finger into the hem of my jeans and tugged me right up against him.
Heat blistered over my skin as I curved my body against his, wrapping both my arms around his neck. Even just the possibility of something happening between us set my entire body ablaze.
“Is that an invitation?” I asked, half teasing, half hopeful.
“It’s a promise.” His eyes glimmered wickedly.
“So, when do I get to take it for a spin?” I asked, not entirely sure we were still talking about the car anymore.
The corner of his mouth dug up into his cheek. “Whenever you’re ready, angel.”
I pushed up on my toes and grazed my tongue along the seam of his lips. “What if I’m ready now?”
His breathing intensified and I knew I was finally getting somewhere with him. With our breath mingling in the air between us like a tonic, I cupped the back of his neck and drew his mouth down to mine. His lips opened against mine, as though doing anything other than that was something completely beyond his paygrade.
“Take me upstairs,” I pleaded, moaning against his mouth as I tightened my grip on him.
He let out a string of eloquent curse words and pulled back. “How much did you have to drink?” he asked as he stared down at me, his eyes thinning as though he were trying to read the number from my face.
“I’ve had enough.”
He arched his brow. “And how many glasses does enough translate to?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m not drunk if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Then why are you swaying, love?”
“You noticed that too, huh?” I shook my head as though that might fix the spinning-room problem. It didn’t, but I still didn’t care. “Anyway. About that ride,” I said in my most seductive voice.
He laughed again, his hands firmly planting around my waist to steady me against him. “You’re not taking anything for a ride tonight, angel. Except maybe a pillow.”
I glared at him. “You’re a riot, Dominic.”
He didn’t respond with words. Instead, he lowered his arms, splaying both hands against my behind and then pulling me up into his arms before securing my legs snugly around his waist.
I flashed a sloppy smile. “Are you taking me upstairs?”
“I’m taking you to bed,” he answered flatly.
“Your bed,” I whispered against his ear and then grazed my tongue along the edge of it.
He growled again, though this time, I could feel it vibrating against my chest. “To sleep, angel. Nothing more.”
Sure, pal. That’s what you think, I thought to myself as I tightened my legs around his waist. Using my iron-clad hold on him, I subtly began grinding my body against his, teasing him. “Are you sure that’s what you really want?”
More growls and curses sounded from his mouth, letting me know I was hitting all the right spots. Before I could bask in the small victory, he took off for the stairs, picking up speed with every step he took.
Naturally, I matched his pace and doubled down on my newfound sexual prowess. By the time we made it upstairs to his bedroom, he was fully erect and looked as though he may have been willing to sell his first-born child for some relief.
Mission accomplished, I thought, but I wasn’t about to stop there. As he walked me to his bed, I ran my fingers through his hair and then pressed my mouth against his, doing my best to seal the deal.
“You’re one dangerous girl,” he said as he leaned forward to drop me down onto the plush comforter. His voice was gruff and filled with need, and it matched what I was feeling on the inside perfectly.
I tightened my hold on him and tried to pull him down on top of me, but he refused to budge.
“You need to get some rest, angel. You have a big day tomorrow.”
Somewhere in the peripheral of my awareness, I knew he was right, but it was like my ears had grown a mind of their own and decided to block out his words entirely.
“Kiss me goodnight,” I said, pushing the looming shadows of tomorrow all the way into the cavernous pit of my stomach. Tomorrow hadn’t happened yet. As far as I was concerned, it didn’t even exist. All that existed was the here and now. Me. Dominic. This moment. And whatever I needed to do to get this man to comply with my demands.
Frowning, he unlatched my arms from around his neck and then straightened to his full height at the side of the bed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”
“And that’s exactly the problem with you lately,” I whined and then let out a heavy breath of frustration. “You think too much and don’t kiss me nearly enough,” I informed, being that our last few meetups had gone exactly this way.
We’d gone from zero to a hundred over the summer and then suddenly, right back down to zero.
“Is that right?” He cocked an eyebrow at my summary.
“Yes, and very, very wrong. When a girl comes to you for comfort, when she’s practically begging you for it—you give her what she wants, especially when that girl is me!”
Now he was full-blown grinning at me.
“Come on, Dominic! Stop being a killjoy. I just want to kiss you,” I lied, knowing full well I wanted to do a whole lot more than that. “Is that against the law now or something?”
He thought about it, or at least pretended to. “That depends on how drunk you are.”
“I told you, I’m not drunk.” Driving home the point, I clumsily unbuttoned my jeans and began to shimmy out of them while still lying flat on my back. Even in my semi-inebriated state, I knew I was being tactless and completely void of any grace. But damn it if my urges weren’t more important than that.
His mouth tilted up in amusement. “What exactly are you doing now?”
“I’m taking off my clothes.” Someone needed to get this party started and it obviously wasn’t going to be him.
He shook his head, but his dark gaze stayed locked on me, watching me. “You’re playing with fire, angel,” he warned but it came out less like a warning and more like an afterthought.
“Is there any other way to play?” I asked as I unfastened my leg holster and dropped it on the floor in front of his feet.
“Don’t forget the shirt,” he reminded lowly, and I immediately perked up.
YAS! We were finally getting somewhere, dammit!
Pushing myself up from the bed, I grabbed the bottom of my tank top and pulled it up over my head before tossing that onto the floor too. He took his time letting his eyes roam over my body, taking in the sights, and I let him, feeling empowered by the desire that filtered through his dark, hooded eyes.
“Lay back down,” he demanded, his voice dangerous and commanding.
I flopped back quickly, and not just because he’d asked, but because the room was starting to spin again, and it wasn’t even the good kind—the kind that comes from our blood exchanges.
His eyes were still trained on me when he leaned over the nightstand and killed the lights. He was draped in shadows excep
t for the faint moonlight dusting his face in gray-blue hues from an opening in the window curtains. Heat rushed up to my cheeks as he stood there, drinking me in.
“Are you going to just stand there all night or are you going to touch me?” I asked brazenly.
He cocked his head to the side. “I’m thinking about it.”
“Okay,” I whispered, liking the sound of that. It was better than a ‘no’. “Can you think about it over here?”
Another lowly rumble vibrated at the back of his throat as he ran a hand down his face. If there was a war waging inside of him, I was gaining ground with every passing second.
Suddenly, and to my utter delight, the bed dipped from his weight as he climbed on and then slowly brought his body over mine. The heaviness of his presence felt like a sheet of comfort; like the air I needed to finally fill my lungs with life.
I resisted the urge to thank him; to worship at the altar of the pleasure he was about to bestow upon me.
My pulse rushed as he strung a row of eager kisses along the base of my neck and then moved downward over the hills of my chest and the valley of my belly. His lips felt like lightning bolts against my skin, like an electrical charge that restarted my system—hot, searing, and dangerous to the touch. I sucked in a gust of air as his lips moved from my belly to the edge of my underwear and then to my hips.
My heart jackhammered in my chest as he pushed my legs apart and then lowered his mouth to my inner thigh, kissing and then nipping the delicate area with his teeth.
A familiar pang of heat washed through my body as he took his time marking the territory. Perhaps, a little too much time.
“Dominic, please,” I begged, unable to wait a second longer.
The sound of his fangs clicking out sent a jolt of fire through my veins. Before I could fully comprehend what he was about to do, or rather, where he was doing it, his teeth broke through my skin like butter, sending a burst of pain and then pleasure radiating through every inch of my body.
Arching my back, I pressed my head into the pillow as his fingers dug into my hips, pulling my inner thigh closer to his mouth. Waves of twisted desire rained down over me, mollifying my hurt and soothing my pain until all I could feel was him, this moment, and the absolute nirvana he had drowned me in—until I wasn’t even sure I was still taking in air.
“Don’t. Ever. Stop.” The ache inside me intensified and I knew I needed more.
He groaned again, louder this time, and then bit down harder into my thigh. A surprised shriek escaped my mouth as pain emanated from the spot he’d bitten down into, but then quickly subsided as he drew more blood from my body—his venom once again making everything right in the world the way it had done countless times before.
As if reading my mind—my body—he slid his hand over my leg and then into my underwear. Another moan sounded off into the darkness as he teased the delicate flesh there, and then slipped his finger inside me. He always knew exactly how to touch me to unravel me from the inside out, and tonight was no exception. I was putty in his hands, but that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted me to smolder, to liquify for him, and naturally, I was always the willing participant.
It only took a few moments of his fingers moving in tandem with his mouth against my thigh before everything inside of me exploded into a million waves of rapture.
I wasn’t sure if it was the drinks I had or how much blood he was taking, but the room was definitely circling around me as though I’d been swept up into a tornado. If this was happening for any other reason, it would be the part where my fear would take hold of me. But that fear never came. It never did with Dominic.
Instead, I welcomed the darkness like the return of an old, familiar friend.
And then, as quickly as it had started, it stopped. As if sensing my slow descent into the void, Dominic pulled his mouth away from my thigh. His breathing was coming out in fast and heavy pants, and his fingers were still digging into my leg as though he were struggling to find his bearings—his restraint.
I tried to tell him not to stop. That I could handle more, but I wasn’t able to move my lips enough to form any words. I was sailing, soaring, drowning in that part of the abyss where nothing existed but the pleasure of this single moment.
And lord knew, I lived for this moment.
A soft, satisfied moan escaped my lips as I felt his body glide over mine in the darkness. He paused for a moment, staring down at my half-closed eyes, at my forehead slick with sweat, at my pulse throbbing against my neck, and then brought his face to mine and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips.
On instinct, I lifted a shaky leg and wrapped it around his body, wanting to keep him there with me, to make him do more to me, but I knew my effort was futile. We both knew I was only partially there, partially conscious; because the other part of me was still fluttering through a stateless state of inconceivable ecstasy.
“Sleep now, angel,” his whispered against my lips, and I immediately did.
Peacefully and deeply, for the first time in weeks.
6. PARTIAL RECAL
I woke up late the next morning feeling rested and content. After downing a cup of black coffee, bouncing a quick kiss off of Dominic’s cheek, and then Michael Schumachering my way across town, I parked my shiny new black Audi A4 in the student parking lot with plenty of time to spare. But I didn’t move a muscle after that.
With my stomach in knots, I sat in the front seat of a car I wasn’t licensed to drive, and I waited.
Searching…
I watched as swarms of students shuffled around the parked cars, some to get to class early, some to reach their huddled-up groups of friends, all appearing equally thrilled to see each other after a long summer break away.
I wondered if they knew how lucky they were to have been born perfectly ordinary. To not have to carry the impossible weight of the world on their teenage shoulders.
Must be nice, I mused and went back to searching.
My eyes scanned every crevice and corner for Trace’s blue Mustang but came up empty. Either he hadn’t arrived at school yet or he’d parked in the other student parking lot by the gymnasium. At this point, not knowing was making my head spin even more than it did on the drive over here. My mind was a boisterous racket of anxious thoughts and rushing emotions, too disjointed for me to make sense of and too loud for me to ignore.
I supposed that was normal, all things considered. I hadn’t even had twenty-four hours to process the fact that Trace was still alive. I still felt numb and shell-shocked as though my brain were simply not equipped to make sense of something as monumentally impossible as this.
The only thing I knew for sure was that I was going to have to face him—the boy I loved and killed.
And it was going to be much sooner than I was prepared for.
It took me a few more minutes to wrangle enough nerve to get out of my car and head toward the entrance. Everything felt as though it were moving in slow motion, scenery and people blurring languidly past me as I pushed forward through the haze with heavy steps and an even heavier heart.
Inside, I made a quick stop at the office to pick up my schedule since I missed orientation day and then made my way towards my newly assigned locker on the second floor. I found it relatively easily and wasted no time emptying last year’s schoolbag, placing my binders, pencil case and schedule on the top shelf and then digging around in my bag for my lock.
My back stiffened as a familiar humming sensation danced itself across my skin, altering me to the fact that I was no longer alone. I’d been too preoccupied in my search for my missing lock to notice that someone had come up beside me.
“Hey,” said Trace, his voice deep and edgy yet strangely comforting.
Time and words failed me as I stared into my locker, completely frozen and unable to respond with actual words. I honestly wasn’t sure how long it was before I finally turned my head and faced him.
“H-hey,” I answered at last, albeit croakily. I hadn’t gotten
close enough to him yesterday to notice whether that humming sensation between us was still there. But now, in this moment, I could confirm it was alive and well.
Trace’s dimples pressed into his cheeks as he categorized my features, and I nearly toppled over right then and there as I watched him put my face into memory. “You’re the girl from last night.”
It wasn’t really a question, but I swallowed the log-sized knot in my throat and nodded anyway.
“This might sound a little weird, but I feel like I’ve seen you before,” he said pensively, cocking his head to the side as though he were still trying to place me. “Before yesterday, I mean.”
My heart was practically smashing a hole through my chest.
Was he remembering me? Were his memories coming back? Was that even a good thing? I hadn’t yet had a chance to get any answers to the hundreds of questions I had. Panic set in as I realized I had no idea what to do here; push for him to remember me or just stay vague and keep him in the dark?
“I uh…I started here last spring, so…” I shrugged, not knowing what else to say, or not to say for that matter.
“So, we’ve already met then,” he said, almost to himself, as though he were filling in the missing pieces in his mind.
I nodded again.
“I guess I owe you an apology then,” he said and leaned in a little as though we were sharing a private secret.
It was only then that I noticed I was still holding my schoolbag up in front of me. I lowered my arms and asked, “Why would you owe me an apology?”
“For forgetting you.” He cracked a playful smile just then, once again setting off his heart-stopping dimples.
Suddenly, I felt the urge to cry. Lord knew, he wasn’t the only one that had forgotten. In a lot of ways, I had forgotten him too. I had too. I clamped down on my tongue to keep from bursting out into tears, or worse: apologies.
“I was in an accident right before summer,” he went on, obviously regurgitating the same bullshit story Nikki had fed him. “Messed up my memory a little.”
“There you are,” interrupted Nikki as she wrapped an arm around Trace’s neck and swung herself in front of him—purposely blocking me off from his view and nearly stepping on my foot in the process. And she would’ve nailed it too had I not jumped back in the nick of time.
Incarnate: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Saga Book 5) Page 5